The 2000 Manifesto of the New Patriotic Party recognizes the importance of local government in our national development. In Chapter 3 it states, 'Much of the political atrophy in Ghana since independence can be traced to the excessive centralization of government and governmental power in the capital.' It continues, 'This has led to a situation where local government, which should be the cradle of political development and a nursery for the development of politicians, has been virtually non-existent.' From this premise therefore, many Ghanaians felt that an NPP government was about to take bold actions to put local government in its rightful place in our developmental process.

However, much of the legal framework for the present dysfunctional local government is found in the 1992 Constitution and any attempt to reform local government in Ghana would begin at taking a second look at those constitutional provisions and finding appropriate amendments. For example, Article 241(3) makes the District Assembly the highest political authority in the district and gives it both legislative and executive powers. In Article 242(d), an additional thirty percent of the elected members are to be appointed by the president. Then, in Article 243, the District Chief Executive is to be appointed by the president, be the chief representative of central government in the district, and to be responsible for the executive and administrative functions of the assembly.

One basic principle in modern political administration is separation of powers, which ensures that the executive, legislature, and judiciary work independently and effectively. Thus the legislature makes the laws, the executive executes the laws and carries on its developmental agenda, while the judiciary interprets the laws. Therefore, whether at the national level or at a local level, it is important that the executive is separated from the legislature. The District Assemble needs to concentrate on legislating on local matters while the executive functions and its Chief Executive need to be made into an independent entity. The current fusion makes both parts of the District Assembly ineffective.

At the peak of political apathy, it is understandable that there will be the need to appoint additional members of the District Assemble to add up the assembly's expertise. However, in contemporary Ghana, there is a high degree of political consciousness and there is need to question whether Article 242(d) has not outlived its usefulness. Moreover, the modern practice is for the legislature to invite experts to come and give their opinions on an issue whenever it is required. Even if there is still the need to appoint a few others, the elected members should be the best people to do the appointments. The present system has become nothing more that patronage appointments and cronyism.

The appointment or election of the District Chief Executive and the larger issue of the involvement of political parties in local government were big issues in the drafting of our current constitution. The outcome is that the district level election is held on a non-partisan basis and the president appoints the District Chief Executive. This has created a supposedly non-partisan local government system alongside a partisan national government system. This arrangement is bound to fail, for a partisan national government should be built on a partisan local government structure and not any other way. Eventually, the non-partisan local government must give in to a powerful partisan national government.

This defeats the whole concept of decentralization. The people in the districts must have the right to choose their legislators and executives in a competitive partisan environment. It is only a strong executive entity with a big developmental program, directly chosen by the people, which can tackle the serious developmental problems in the districts.

The manifesto further states, 'The New Patriotic Party believes in the decentralization of government and the bureaucracy. An NPP government will correct the anomalies that have undermined effective decentralization.'

The question that needs to be asked now is what the NPP government has done in this regard, having been in government for the past five years. A candid assessment is that there has not been any real attempt to make fundamental changes to local government to move power from Accra to the districts. As begun by its predecessor NDC government, the NPP government has taken full advantage of the loopholes in the system and pursued its agenda vigorously, irrespective of local concerns or its own promises. The recent threats to appointed member of some district assembles to either fall in line with government policies or be fired, and the president's squeeze on some district assemblies that refused to endorse his District Chief Executives clearly demonstrate this. Ironically, the present president was a champion of decentralization until he moved into the Castle. So long as our leaders do no see the connection between decentralization and development, we will continue to be a poor country.

Ghanaians need to rise and hold their leaders accountable. As we move ahead towards the next general elections, we need to ask our politicians for their stand on the above and many other issues that hinder democracy and development in Ghana and hold them accountable when they get our mandate We deserve nothing less than great leaders to take us away from our present self-inflicted predicament into real democracy and prosperity.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.